The Soft Pack: The Soft Pack

Rolling Stone: At a time when a lot of retro-garage types are playing it languid and low-fi, the Soft Pack exude wide-eyed angst -- a sense of discovery that's hard to put across with hand-me-down rock.

NME: Much like the similarly unremarkable but similarly quite awesome Phoenix, The Soft Pack are a band it's hard to get really excited about. They're the song that keeps you on the dance floor rather than the one that makes you scream with joy from its opening notes.

The Guardian: This debut mines 30 years of music by the Ramones, the Replacements, IRS-era REM and every other band that has ever gleefully doubled up guitar parts and vocal harmonies. That it's derivative isn't that much of a stick to beat them with, though - they've produced 30 minutes of glossy, singalong, preppy pop-punk.

OneThirtyBPM: The great thing about garage rock albums like this is that they're easy to pick up and put down. Some albums you mate for life with, others are one-night stands, and some are so tragic you pull the plug before you've even really gotten to the foreplay. With all the charms it contains, The Soft Pack is a great album to have a fling with, and who knows where it might go from there?